Dark Craving: A Watchers Novella by Veronica Wolff Read Free Book Online Page B

They work. Put a stake in the ground, and watch as the shadow falls in different spots as the sun moves through the sky. Actually, that’s your assignment for the afternoon. Make a sundial. See if you can tell me what time it is.”
    There’s a round of moaning. One of them whines, “That sounds hard.”
    I raise a brow. “Survival is hard, Acari.”
    “I thought our assignment was to find our way across the island,” another says.
    “That’s tonight.”
    “How will we find our way without the sun?”
    “Simple,” I tell them. “Find the North Star. It never moves.”
    “Establish true north,” Annelise adds. She rolls her eyes, her way to say duh .
    It was a meaningless aside, but for a moment, I’m gutted. True north. It’s what Annelise has become to me. I hadn’t known hope before I met her, not really. When I’m with her, I feel renewed. I have possibilities. I feel known.
    “How do you find the North Star?” someone asks.
    I can’t find my voice, but Ann answers for me, and it’s a mercy. “It’s at the very tip of the handle of the Little Dipper.” She’s dropped to her knees, already at work sketching out the face of her sundial. “It’s the bright one,” she adds dismissively, concentrating on drawing lines in the sand. “You can’t miss it.”
    “Can’t you just find that, then?” another student asks.
    My eyes keep returning to Annelise, mesmerized by her focused intent. She’s proud—she’ll want to be the first one to finish this assignment.
    “Tracer Ronan?”
    I shake the nonsense from my head. “You can’t always have your true north.” There’s a pathetic metaphor in there somewhere.
    “Why not?”
    I shrug, growing impatient, eyes once more landing on Annelise. She’s digging in the side of her boot to pull out a throwing star. She’ll use that instead of a stick to cast a shadow for her sundial. “Because something might get in the way,” I say distractedly. She’s so clever, working through the assignment—it’s like I can see the cogs spinning in her head. “Like a body of water, or…” I must focus on class but can’t look away. She’s planting the star in the sand. There’s a flash of blue-white glare as light catches the steel. “Or some other natural element, like a—” I spot a design etched along its face—the pattern of a bird’s wing. It’s the star Carden gave her. Jealousy stabs me.
    “Like a…?” a female voice prompts.
    Annelise tilts her face to me, giving me an inquisitive look.
    “Or a”—I rack my brain, trying to remember what I was saying, remember how to breathe—“Like anything. You might walk into a crevasse. A lake. A monster. Enough talking,” I finish sharply. “Get to work.”
    Carden’s gift to Annelise is a reminder: I have to stop gaping at her. There is only one thing I can afford to see, and that’s Dagursson, and the target I’ve put on his back.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    We tell students not to leave the path. To beware the dark. I break both rules as I stand here in the shadows of the Arts Pavilion, prowling among the bushes like a burglar. I peer through the window into Dagursson’s office, seeking ideas, additional weapons, and the excuse that’ll get me close enough to kill him.
    I need to get in, do the deed, and get out.
    I’d failed Charlotte, but I won’t fail Annelise. If killing the old Viking is the only way to keep her alive, then that’s what I’ll do. Even though it might very well mean my own death.
    I hold my breath, watching as he rises and walks to his bookshelves. But instead of selecting a book, he reaches his index finger high. Presses something. A panel pops open.
    A secret hiding spot.
    What does he keep in there? Is that where he’s tucked away the information about my family? If I could actually track them down… The possibilities make me reel. I could take Annelise to them. We could flee; they’d give us shelter. We could make a fresh start.
    Discovering how to open it is